Manufacturing output rose 19.1% in February

Receiving bad news though was the transport engineering cluster given the 17.7% decline in its output in February on a year-on-year basis.

All segments within the transport engineering cluster suffered contraction. In particular, output of the aerospace segment dropped 9.6% with lower level of activities in maintenance, repair and overhaul of aircraft. Meanwhile the marine & offshore engineering segment saw 24.1% decrease in output in February due to fewer ship repair jobs and lower percentage of completion in projects involving construction of oil rigs and ships.

However, overall manufacturing output managed to rise 19.1% in February, with the electronics cluster as major contributor as it saw 56.5% growth in February 2010 on a year-on-year basis. According to the Economic Development Board, the semiconductor segment continued to perform strongly within the electronics cluster, posting a 96.7% increase in February due to higher export demand and the low base effect in the same period in 2009. Meanwhile the other electronic modules & components and data storage segments rose 54.2% and 11.0% respectively.

Manufacturing output of the precision engineering cluster grew 20.1% year-on-year in February, with the precision modules & components segment expanding 25.7% on higher level of production of metal precision components and plastic precision engineering parts.

Within the biomedical manufacturing cluster, the pharmaceuticals segment saw 15.6% improvement in February with higher level of production of active pharmaceutical ingredients and contributed to the cluster’s 14.8% year-on-year increase in February. Meeting export orders for surgical and medical instruments, the medical technology segment posted 0.8% rise in manufacturing output.

Other clusters that saw growth were the chemicals and general manufacturing industries, expanding 10.7% and 4.1% respectively in February.